The Switch
by Tiggipi
Summary: Lolidragon gives Prince an unwanted demonstration of a new glitch in Second Life.
1. The Glitch

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Prince stared vacantly into space as he leaned against the wide trunk of a tall maple tree and crossed his arms. He rhythmically tapped the tip of his left boot on a rock by his feet, silently waiting. Lifting his gaze to the thick boughs above his head, he watched a large, fluffy white cloud soar across the bright blue sky until it disappeared from sight. With a sigh he glanced around his surroundings, scanning the widely-spaced tree trunks for any of his teammates. Aside from a large number of mangled corpses, which littered the blood-stained ground around him, he was alone. Even the familiar warmth of Meatbun sitting on his head was missing, as the bun had gone to spend time with Kekkaishi. The two had adored each other ever since they met. Prince sometimes felt a slight stab of jealousy toward his pet getting attached to another player, but easily forgot it when he saw how blissful his good friend and son were when they spent time together.

Five minutes passed.

Another ten minutes.

A bumble bee flew past Prince's leg and landed on a flower near the base of the tree. He thought about killing it, but stopped when he wondered if tiny insects also gave experience points. With as much as he loved killing things, he'd never actually included the NPC insects of _Second Life_ as monsters.

He sent another searching look about the area. "Why are they so slow?" he grumbled to himself. Usually he was the only one who had trouble finding their meeting spots, unless a teammate went with him to keep him from getting lost. He shifted restlessly into a more comfortable position, gritting his teeth when his armor let out a screech as it scraped against the rough bark.

Glancing downward, he looked back at the bee for lack of anything better to do and watched as its tiny body got covered in flower pollen. When it launched itself off the flower and began to fly away, Prince pulled his black saber out of its sheath and began to quietly follow the bug as it looked for another flower to land on. It flew for a few moments and began to buzz downward to a patch of daisies several meters away from the tree Prince had been leaning on. Prince lifted his sword and watched the bee's progress. When it was a few centimeters from the daisy, he swung the blade down to chop the unsuspecting insect in half.

"PRINCE!"

Prince jumped in surprise, halted his sword in mid-swing, and looked up abruptly to see Lolidragon marching across the grass toward him, waving her arm in greeting. He glanced back to the flower, but to his annoyance, his prey had flown away and was nowhere in sight. Lolidragon stopped beside him and looked to where he was staring.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing…"

"Did you just attack a flower?"

"No!" Prince sheathed his sword and stomped away from the flowers in embarrassment, not wanting to tell her he'd just stalked a bug, which he didn't think was much better than attempting to murder a flower. "What took you so long‽ I've been waiting here for ages!"

"Well, _excuse_ me for not being able to find this place!" Lolidragon exclaimed, placing her hand on one hip and frowning slightly. "I had to login late because of problems at work, and all you said about this place was that there were maple trees and mutated rabbits." She glanced momentarily at the bodies scattered across the ground. "All of which you killed, looks like."

Prince shrugged. "I got bored. They'll re-spawn soon, anyway." He hadn't known the place would be difficult for the others to find. He'd simply wandered there while killing things. To avoid getting lost even further by trying to head back toward town, he'd suggested for the team to meet there for their training.

"The others should be here in a few minutes," Lolidragon announced. "I messaged our location to them."

"Okay," said Prince as relief washed over him at not having to wait any longer. "So, what's going on with your work?"

Lolidragon heaved a sigh. "Oh, just the usual problems with glitches." Her eyebrows drew together angrily. "For all the billions of lines of computer coding I have to type up a day, my boss never gives my department time to test it out before we add it to the game so there's usually problems with the updates, and then my boss yells at us as if we do it on purpose…"

Prince's eyes widened. He hadn't known her job was so taxing. He'd thought she simply played the game all day long. "Is it a serious problem?" Lolidragon's eyes lit up at his inquiry and she turned on Prince, suddenly looking very eager. Prince took a step back as she walked toward him. "W-wait, what are you doing?"

"Don't you want a demonstration?"

"No!" He waved his hands at her, feeling extremely frightened at her change in mood. Anything that made Lolidragon excited usually involved something chaotic happening to other people, and Prince's life was already extremely chaotic.

"Aw, come on," she coaxed mischievously. "Where's your sense of adventure?" She quickly closed the space between them and grabbed his shoulders so he couldn't retreat anymore. Prince looked into her eyes fearfully as she leaned closer. When she was little more than two centimeters away from his face, she paused and her smile stretched wider. He opened his mouth to once again ask her what she was doing when she abruptly tilted her head back, and brought it forward again with as much force as she could muster, crashing her forehead into his.

"OW!" Prince yelled as pain exploded in his head both from the impact and from the sharp points of his tiara cutting into his skin. He could feel a warm drip of blood start down the side of his face as he pushed her away and put both hands on his steadily bruising forehead. "Ow! Ow! Dammit, Lolidragon! What the…hell…?" Prince's eyes flew open as his words dropped off. His voice, normally smooth and deep, had suddenly become much more high-pitched and girly. Rubbing his pounding forehead once more, he noticed his tiara wasn't there anymore. His eyes widened as he looked down and found himself staring at Lolidragon's extremely large and heavy chest.

"WHAT‽" He looked up wildly and came face-to-face with himself. His body was smiling gleefully at him, one hand on his hip and one hovering over his lips as a giggle shook his body. "What a stupid glitch!"

Prince watched, feeling unsettled, as his body nodded and then sighed. "Yeah, I don't know how we managed it…" Lolidragon adjusted the tiara on her forehead and wiped a trickle of blood off her face, red eyes glinting gleefully.

Prince tried very hard to not look down again as the unfamiliar weight tugged at his chest. The skimpy pink armor Lolidragon always wore was too tight and far too airy in various places. He lifted a hand and brushed the long, reddish pink hair off his shoulder. Lolidragon, obviously not at all uncomfortable at the spontaneous body switch, was straightening Prince's black armor, her hands lingering over his body for much longer than necessary.

"Quit touching me," he ordered with a frown.

She looked back at him with a pouty expression. "You're so stingy."

"It's _my_ body, I can be stingy with it if I want! Now give it back!"

Her eyes widened slightly as she looked past him and a smile spread across her face once more. Faint footsteps made Prince turn around and he watched in horror as their teammates appeared, striding through the trees and waving at the pair. Gui ran ahead of the rest, frantically waving his arm with a happy smile on his face as he skipped through the grass and yelled random compliments and greetings to Prince.

"Oh, shit."

Without hesitation, Lolidragon leapt past Prince and waved in return. Prince felt slightly sick as he watched his body gleefully bound through the grass, corpses, and flowers as she ran to greet them. Gui froze in his steps and sent Prince's body an extremely bewildered look as Lolidragon stopped in front of them.

"Your Highness…?"

"Yes, Gui?" Lolidragon cooed as she looked up at him soppily. Prince knew she was having the time of her life.

"Are…are you okay?"

Lolidragon lifted a finger and drew it across Gui's cheek. His mouth dropped open as she took a step closer. "Of course!"

"What happened to your forehead?" Ugly Wolf inquired to "Prince" in concern.

Prince, suddenly remembering Lolidragon's character was much faster than his own, launched himself across the grass as Gui took a terrified step back from Lolidragon who had grabbed the front of his shirt and was forcefully pulling him closer again with a seductive look. He was mumbling incoherent things, a deep blush spreading across his panicky face as he tried and failed to pry Lolidragon's fingers off.

"Y-Your Highness, please, let go…" he sputtered in embarrassment as he glanced around in a helpless way to the others.

"Loli—I mean, Prince! Stop!" Having no idea what he should be calling himself, Prince jumped the last meter and tackled his body to the ground before Lolidragon could do anything to Gui, or the other way around. The thought of his body being in the hands of the team's Pervert Pair terrified him even more than what Lolidragon had already done.

Lolidragon looked up at Prince's outraged face and started laughing. "What? I wasn't going to do anything…"

"Like I'd believe that!" he screamed, grabbed his body's neck, and promptly began strangling it. "GIVE IT BACK! GIVE IT BACK RIGHT NOW!"

"Lolidragon!" Ugly Wolf grabbed Prince's upper arms and pulled him off before he could choke himself to death. "Calm down!"

"What is going on with you two‽" Yu Lian asked and looked from one to the other in a whirl of confusion. "Prince, what'd you do?"

"Your Highness." Gui hesitantly held out his hand to Lolidragon to help her up. "What does she mean, 'give it back'?" He looked regretful for helping her when he tried to take his hand away afterward and she refused to let go. The blush on his cheeks spread further as Lolidragon once again smiled at him, the usual gentlemanly smile but with lascivious twist.

Prince struggled as hard as he could in Ugly Wolf's grip as he watched Gui retreat behind Doll as if the tiny girl would be able to shield him from the sensuous looks "Prince" was giving him.

"Please, your Highness, something's wrong with you…You should—A-A-AH!"

"Let go! I have to stop him!"

"Did he eat something weird…?" Doll called over Gui's cries for help as Lolidragon began to chase him in circles around Doll. The others looked like they didn't know what to do about the backward situation of Prince chasing Gui, rather than the other way around.

"SAVE ME!" Gui screamed in terror as he ran past them as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't fast enough.

"Something is seriously wrong with him." Yu Lian gaped as Lolidragon grabbed hold of Gui's cloak and continued the chase. The delight over tormenting Gui was clearly showing on her face.

"Oh, let go! Prince, please, stop!"

"No!"

"Get ahold of yourself!" Gui wailed as he zig-zagged through the trees in an attempt to lose Lolidragon. The only thing he succeeded in losing was ground.

"Wolf-dàgē!" Prince finally bellowed. "LET ME GO!" Ugly Wolf looked down at him in surprise and reflexively relaxed his grip, allowing Prince to slip through his claws. "STOP RUNNING!" he yelled and chased after his body once more. "GIVE IT BACK, LOLIDRAGON!"

Lolidragon looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened in surprise to see Prince barreling down on her. She dodged to one side at the last second and Prince crashed into Gui instead, who then tripped over one of the monster corpses that still littered the ground. They fell down in a crumpled heap. Prince jumped up again, leaving Gui unconscious on the ground next to the dead rabbit, and resumed his pursuit.

"No! Get away!" Lolidragon yelled between laughs over her shoulder and ducked behind Ugly Wolf.

"Wolf-dàgē! Grab her!"

Ugly Wolf pulled Lolidragon out from behind him and hesitantly held her in place as Prince stopped in front of them, gasping for breath. Lolidragon looked disappointed at having her place of refuge turn on her.

"N-now," Prince wheezed. "Give it back!"

She looked pouty again. "Do I have to?"

"Yes!" Prince grabbed the front of his body's shirt and yanked her back and forth. "Now!" He abruptly swung his head down on Lolidragon's and they collided with a hollow thunk. Pain burst through his skull again and he took a step backward, willing himself not to cry from the intense throbbing. After a moment, he opened his eyes and felt a new wave of terror rise in his chest.

He was still staring at himself.

"Why didn't it work‽" he yelled wildly.

"Well…" Lolidragon glanced around hesitantly and smiled in a twitchy way. "There's something you should know."

Prince grabbed his body's shirt again and started shaking it once more. "Tell me!"

"About that glitch…"

"Hurry up and tell me!" Panic swirled through him as he looked at her guilty expression.

"We don't know how to switch back yet."


	2. Bathroom Break

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note – **__The other day, I was listening to Dead or Alive's You Spin Me Round as I drove home from class. Gui immediately popped into my mind (complete with creepy hip shaking like the also-purple-clothed singer in the music video.) That song fits him so well. Too well. xD_

* * *

Prince sat sullenly at a table in the Infinite City Cafe, shooting glares over his empty plate at Lolidragon, who was shoveling food into her mouth with far too much enthusiasm. Prince's carefully constructed persona as the icy gentleman, the Blood Elf, was crumbling down around his ears as Lolidragon made little effort to pretend to be Prince. Ugly Wolf was glancing between the two nervously as if expecting them to begin another brawl at any moment. Prince probably would have, if the situation had allowed. But regardless of their surroundings, Prince had a feeling that even if he headbutted Lolidragon until their foreheads were reduced to a bloody mush, he wouldn't get his body back. That suspicion combined with the sniffling and sobbing noises coming from the corner behind their table was causing Prince's mood to drop lower and lower.

He glanced down at his plate. It had been yet another extremely distressing moment for him when he had discovered that Lolidragon's already-snug armor gave absolutely no room for him to fill his stomach in what he considered was a satisfying manner. All it had taken was a small plate of food and he was feeling like the armor had started shrinking.

An extra-loud hiccup from behind him on the floor abruptly drove away the tiny remainder of his patience. He gingerly picked up his plate and weighed it contemplatively in his hands for a moment. Twisting around in his chair, he lifted the plate and brought it down as hard as he could on top of Gui's head. It shattered into several pieces as Gui yelled in pain and looked mournfully up at Prince, with large tears of endless misery still spilling down his flushed cheeks. He'd been crying without respite ever since several hours before when Prince had told them what happened.

"Shut up and sit at the table already yet, you idiot!" Prince snarled at him.

Yu Lian put her head in her hand as Gui shakily stood up and obediently wandered around the edge of the table, dribbling pieces of the broken plate onto the floor as he went. "Prince," Yu Lian whispered just loud enough for those at the table to hear. "Please, calm down. And stop breaking things."

Prince turned back around and tried to relax. "Sorry." He picked up his glass of water and took a long drink for something to do. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Gui lower himself into the last empty chair wipe the tears off his cheeks.

Gui sent Prince's body a miserable glare. "Are you _positive_ you don't know how to change back‽"

"Yep."

The suspicious gleam in his eyes didn't disappear as he continued to stare. Prince also had his doubts that the GM truly didn't know how to switch back. She was the one who caused the glitch in the first place. Accident, or not, she should have been able to fix it as well.

"If this doesn't get resolved by tomorrow, what are we going to do about the meetings we have scheduled for this week?" Yu Lian asked as she shot an accusatory glance at Lolidragon, but it softened to one of sympathy as she turned to Prince.

"I don't know," he admitted.

Lolidragon raised a finger excitedly. "I can stand in–"

"NO WAY!" several people simultaneously yelled at her suggestion. A look of indignation settled on her face at the interruption.

"I think it'd be fine," chirped Doll from her seat. She'd been alternating between feeding Meatbun bits of food and watching the conversation's progress with a look of extreme amusement.

"Look, Lolidragon…" Prince sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "You've done really well in the past with stuff like that, but ever since this happened," he paused and gestured to himself before continuing, "you've done nothing but cause trouble." Gui nodded violently in agreement.

Lolidragon crossed her arms in a very characteristic way and frowned like she was offended. "I can behave myself. If I have to…" She glanced at their disbelieving looks and sat up straighter. "I'm being serious! I wouldn't go so far as to cause _that_ much trouble!" She looked at Prince pleadingly.

After several moments of silence, he finally nodded. "Okay, fine. Just promise you won't mess things up."

"I promise." Lolidragon beamed at him. Prince wondered if he'd just been tricked. He tried to brush it off. She'd always been very playful and devious, but oddly serious whenever things of importance came up.

Gui on the other hand still didn't look convinced at all. His narrowed eyes followed her fork as she dug it into the food once more and popped it into her mouth with a smile.

Prince sighed and pushed his chair away from the table. As everyone turned to look at him expectantly, he stood up and announced, "I have to go to the bathroom."

Gui's face flushed at his words and he glanced at a spot somewhere around Prince's middle. "O-oh…?"

Lolidragon stood up and sent Prince a suggestive look. "Shall your big sister show you how?"

"I already know how. As if I wouldn't…" Prince muttered without thinking. His eyes widened as he realized what he'd just said and he glanced around in horror at the surprised looks he was getting and inwardly screamed profanities at himself for being so thoughtless.

Lolidragon burst out laughing and nodded. "Yes, you are _experienced_ in that _area_, aren't you?"

Gui's stricken expression took on new depth as tears began to pour from his eyes once more, at a much faster rate than they had been. His shirt front quickly became damp with the warm droplets. "Your Highness!" he whispered tragically as if Prince had somehow betrayed him.

"Oh, shut up and stop assuming things." He glared at Gui and stomped away toward the restrooms, Lolidragon on his heels. There was a loud clatter as Gui leapt from his seat and ran up a moment later. "Why are you two following me‽ Go away! I don't need help!"

"But, Prince–!" Gui began, wiping the tear tracks off his face once again.

"I said go away!"

"I'm not following you," Lolidragon corrected as they stopped outside the restroom doors. "I have to go, too."

Prince's mouth dropped open. He hadn't foreseen this little complication. "Oh, no. No, no, no…"

Lolidragon glared at him and turned toward the men's room. "Tell that to your bladder!"

Prince and Gui immediately grabbed the back of Prince's body's shirt and pulled it out of the doorway. For once, Prince cursed his own character's strength. "Don't you dare!"

"It's only fair! You get to go in my body, so I get to go in yours!"

"Where the hell does _fairness _come into all this‽"

"You'll never be allowed to see His Highness, Prince's–!"

"Shut your mouth!" Prince screeched as he pulled as hard as he could.

Lolidragon slipped backward a few centimeters as she lost her grip on the door frame. "You morons!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Do you want me to pee myself that badly‽"

Prince stopped tugging, though he kept his firm grip on the shirt back, and stared at Lolidragon. He didn't want that, either. "Well…"

Gui's face suddenly brightened as if he'd just had a wondrously clever idea. "Oh! Your Highness!"

"…What is it?"

"I shall go inside with her, and watch her close to make sure she doesn't do anything!"

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" Prince yelled at the bard's maddeningly happy face. He let go of Lolidragon and grabbed Gui instead.

"No, wait! I'm only trying to protect you—Ow!"

Prince abruptly dropped Gui on the floor when he noticed Lolidragon was no longer beside them. He launched himself toward the door. "GET–!"

Ugly Wolf suddenly clamped his paw around Prince's shoulder and gently pulled him back. "Prince, I'll go."

Prince smiled up at him in relief. In his terror, he'd completely forgotten about the others. "Thank you, Wolf-dàgē," he sighed as Ugly Wolf crammed himself through the too-small doorway and shut the door. Prince knew his body was finally safe.

If only for the moment.


	3. The Abduction

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Prince walked slowly down the road, feeling extremely tired, though the night was only half over. He at least was quite a bit more relaxed than before as he got used to being in Lolidragon's body. After some thought, it didn't seem to be so terrible as it had originally, though he was still very anxious to get back to being himself. There was of course the constant danger of Lolidragon doing something weird to him, again, but the more reliable teammates said they would keep an eye on her when Prince himself couldn't.

Still, it was a bit awkward when he'd noticed all of the people staring at him. It wasn't as though he wasn't used to being stared at. On the contrary, he was stared at by everyone and everything every single day and he had gradually conditioned himself to ignore the gawking faces. But getting interested looks from all of the male players in the near vicinity was new to him. He couldn't help but be a bit embarrassed as he realized he was slightly enjoying the attention. Since he was normally chased after by girls all night long, it was a bit nice to be admired by the other gender. Not to mention none of the men were attempting to molest him as the female players did on a near-constant basis.

"Hey." Lolidragon's call broke Prince out of his reverie as she slid up next to him and ignored the indignant glare she got from Gui, who she'd pushed out of the way. "You-know-who wants to know what you're going to make for breakfast," she informed in a low voice.

Prince looked at her in surprise and raised an eyebrow. "What? Why's he asking you? And how should I know? I've hardly been wondering what I should make for breakfast…"

"Who? What?" Gui asked, and glanced between the two curiously.

Lolidragon ignored him again, sighed, and shook her head. "I'm getting your PMs."

"Dammit," Prince swore under his breath. He didn't have anything incriminating in his messages he didn't want Lolidragon to read or hear, but it was still annoying. The situation was getting more and more inconvenient.

"Good grief. He's spamming me with messages. Hurry up and answer."

"Who is?"

"Tell him to shut up and pick something himself if he's that determined to know."

Lolidragon chuckled and nodded. "Will do."

"Who–?"

"Be quiet!" Prince snapped at Gui. "It's none of your business!" Gui stared at him for a moment before he mumbled an apology and looked down the road, with a woeful expression at being kept in the dark.

"By the way," Lolidragon continued after she'd finished sending the message, "Zui and Wicked both say 'hi.'"

Gui's head whipped back around and he gave her an extremely dirty look as if she were the one who made them message Prince.

"Oh, say 'hi' back."

"Prince," Gui called fretfully, forehead scrunched up in anxiousness.

"Quit bothering me."

"B-but–"

"Don't you have anything better to do than follow me around?" Prince snarled and stepped to one side so Lolidragon was between them, but Gui immediately put himself in the middle again. "Go away!"

"But I'm supposed to be going this way!" Gui sobbed as Prince attempted to push him in a different direction.

"You're the one following us around, Prince," Yu Lian cut in. "I said earlier you should just lay low until this gets fixed. Playboy and Kong Kong can pick up the slack in their department until Lolidragon can help again."

"I know." Prince shrugged and finally stopped shoving Gui. "But I don't have anything else to do!"

"Go kill something."

"A-alone?"

"Prince-gēge!" Doll slipped her little hand into his and smiled up at him. "If you'll be lonely, I'll come fight with you in a little while!"

"I will, too!" Gui said determinedly.

"Not you," Yu Lian denied and glared at him. His face fell with disappointment. "You've been letting your work pile up."

He rearranged his guilty I've-been-caught expression into one of stubbornness. "But I want to stay with Prince!"

"Just go," Prince grumbled, glaring at him, too.

"Your Highness, please! I want to–!"

"Quit making a scene!" Prince hissed at him and started pushing him forward again. "Why would you be hanging out with only Lolidragon, anyway? Go follow 'Prince' around like your normal moronic self!"

Gui stopped for a moment with a thoughtful look and a nod. "Hm, I don't want to raise suspicions…" The look disappeared a moment later as he let out a gasp of realization. "Hey, wait! You're just trying to get rid of me!"

"Exactly!"

"No, I want to stay!" he wailed and dug his heels into the ground, refusing to go any further. Ugly Wolf finally stepped forward, grabbed him by the arms, and started dragging him away. "No, wait…! PRINCE! I WANT TO STA-A-A-AY! NO-O-O-O!"

Doll turned Prince around, completely ignoring Gui's continued dramatic screaming. "See this road we're standing on?" she asked brightly. Prince nodded, feeling confused at the unexpected question. "Walk straight in that direction. Keep going straight. Don't turn. You'll hit the city gates in a few minutes. Right outside are those woods, remember?" Prince nodded again at her simplistic words, which she spoke to him as if he were a very small child. "Good. Go ahead and go there ahead of me, and I'll be out soon! Okay?"

"Okay…"

"Remember, no turns! Bye!"

"Bye," Prince returned with a wave at Yu Lian and Doll as they briskly walked off after Ugly Wolf and the frantically struggling Gui. Prince sighed and glanced at Lolidragon. "Behave yourself."

"I will!" She turned away and waved a hand. "Don't get lost!"

"I won't," he grumbled to himself as he watched them all leave. "As if I'd get lost walking in a straight line…" He stood still, watching them disappear. Loneliness immediately began to well up at his abandonment, but he beat it down again and shook his head. "Right, let's go."

He turned away from his retreating teammates and started down the street, keeping his eyes glued to the gate he could see in the distance. His feet felt heavier now that he was walking by himself. A slight stab of annoyance flickered through his mind as he realized he should have taken Meatbun, who was still happily riding on Doll's head, with him for company.

"I bet that bun is going to get his own fan club someday," Prince muttered to himself with a light chuckle.

He let loose one more sigh and sped up his progress and straightened his posture, trying to lighten his own mood. It was starting to work when he suddenly heard a loud noise on his right across the street. He turned his head, feeling startled, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What in the–"

A sharp pain burst out on the back of his head, cutting off his sentence and nearly knocking him off his feet. Someone caught him around the middle before he could fall to the ground and roughly picked him up. His head was swimming from getting struck from behind, and a deep throbbing was starting to pound through his skull. He vaguely noticed a blindfold being tied over his eyes as his consciousness slipped away before he got a chance to message anyone for help.


	4. Idle Boredom

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Lolidragon was bored. Usually at this time of night she would be running here and there and all over the place with her duties about the city, whether for the band, or the Odd Squad, or the city's development. But she was instead banished to Prince's chair, out of the way, while everyone bustled about their business around her. With as idle as she found herself to be, she wondered if this was the reason Prince was so weird. He was a very active person, after all, and sitting in a chair for hours on end like she had—it had only been about half an hour, but it seemed like days and days—didn't seem like such a good idea for someone as spirited and energetic as he.

She ran her eyes over the large room, and then settled them on Gui. He'd reluctantly agreed to sit with her as he did his work, but Lolidragon knew it was only for appearances, not because he particularly cared whether or not she was bored sitting all alone. As mad as he was at her, he was probably inwardly laughing over her restlessness. And even though he had agreed to stay there, he had seated himself as far away from her as physically possible, and was attempting to hide behind his stacks of work papers to avoid looking at her.

With nothing else to do, Lolidragon began tapping her fingers on the top of the table. She forced her face to stay blank as Gui slowly looked up and glowered at her from behind his paper-stack shield. Her fingers stilled and she smiled at him. He sighed and looked back down. She immediately started tapping her fingers again.

"Your," Gui said quietly, sounding like he was having an extremely difficult time speaking. "Your Highness." He grimaced afterward as if calling her by his beloved Prince's title had left a bad taste in his mouth. Lolidragon wondered if it would have been better if he had simply gone to work somewhere else. His behavior toward "Prince" was anything but normal. His usual flippant attitude had long-since dissipated. Plus he wasn't helping relieve her boredom at all.

"Yes, Gui?"

"Please stop that."

"Sorry." Lolidragon slipped her hand off the table and folded it on her lap instead. Gui looked extremely relieved, and went back to work without another word. Lolidragon frowned and looked away from him, again watching people walk around the room. Everyone was hurrying around, not sparing the pair at the table any glances.

It didn't take long for her pent-up energy to start spilling out again, this time as she started rocking her chair back and forth. As she dropped the chair's front legs to the floor with a loud crash for the third time, Gui looked up and gave her a murderous glare. "Lolidragon!" he hissed and set his pen down on the table. "Quit it!"

"But I'm so bored!" she whined as she returned his look and crossed her arms over her chest. "There's nothing to do!"

He was silent for a moment and then brusquely threw a blank piece of paper and a spare pen at her. "Play tic-tac-toe or something!"

She looked down at the paper and then back up at Gui's annoyed expression. "And how am I suppose to play that by myself?"

"You said you were bored, figure out a way," he snapped and slouched in his chair, once again disappearing behind his papers.

She fought back the urge to push his papers over so they'd fall on his head, and instead leaned back in her chair and stared at the paper in front of herself. Tic-tac-toe didn't sound fun at all, even with another person there to play. Her eyes briefly flickered to Meatbun, who was snoring softly from his spot on the edge of the table. After Yu Lian had ordered Lolidragon to stay on Prince's chair until she was done with work, Doll had thought it a good idea to leave Meatbun there. The bun, who had fallen asleep after eating his weight in meatbuns several times over at the cafe, was doing as good of a job keeping her company as Gui was.

Lolidragon's eyes widened slightly as an idea popped into her head; these two were no fun to hang out with, but that didn't mean other people wouldn't be. She smiled slightly and glanced at Gui. He didn't seem to notice her attention. Lolidragon folded her hands together and opened Prince's friend list, trying to decide who would be most entertaining. Her eyes settled on Wicked's name. She certainly never had a bored moment when Gui and Wicked were in the same room, especially with Prince there as well. But she wasn't particularly keen on the idea of Wicked fawning over her.

She ran her eyes down the list again and came to a halt at Wu Qing. Her smile involuntarily stretched wider at the thought of Prince's twin brother coming to keep her company.

"Hey, what are you doing over there?"

She quickly shut the system window and blinked her eyes back into focus. Gui was staring at her suspiciously. She tried to wipe the smile off her face. "Nothing."

"It didn't look like 'nothing' to me." Gui's eyes narrowed further with each word. "What were you doing, reading His Highness' private messages again?"

"No," Lolidragon denied and shook her head at him. She leaned over the table and rested her chin on her hands. "Anyway, I wasn't snooping earlier."

He gave her a disbelieving snort and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? How would you describe it, then?"

"Prince isn't the kind of person who would intentionally ignore messages from his friends," Lolidragon answered. "I read and replied to them to avoid stirring up more trouble."

Gui fell silent and his face flushed slightly. Lolidragon couldn't blame him for being so annoyed over the private messages. Ever since Prince had told her about his little run-in with Gui in real life, she knew Gui was trying to keep out of Prince's personal business as much as possible, and he usually went so far as to attempt to keep other people out of it as well. As much as Gui cared for Prince, Lolidragon wondered just how the man managed to scrape together so much self-control every single day.

Gui finally nodded and gave her a reluctant look. "That makes sense," he muttered. His eyes dropped back to his paper, but he didn't move to pick up his pen, to continue whatever it was he was doing. "Sorry," he said quietly, awkwardly glancing in her direction, "for jumping to conclusions."

"It's fine," she said airily and waved a hand at him. "Go ahead and get back to work so we can hurry up and get out of here. I'll be quiet, so you can concentrate."

His face immediately brightened and he sent her a grateful smile. "Okay, thanks."

Lolidragon watched for a moment as Gui went back to his work, with renewed vigor. She inwardly smiled at his eagerness to see Prince. A small pang of jealousy toward the elf popped into the back of her mind, she'd always been somewhat envious over Gui's feelings for him. Lolidragon had no romantic feelings whatsoever for either of the men, especially not for Prince as he was actually a she, but just the relationship itself was very alluring to her.

With one more small glance at Gui, Lolidragon reopened Prince's friend list and stared somewhat wistfully at Wu Qing's name. She wondered if it would be strange to invite Wu Qing to come train with them after their work was over. Dark Phantom and the Odd Squad still trained together every once and a while, but not as often as they had in the past. It was usually only Wicked who came with them, if anyone at all.

Her heartbeat sped up slightly as she opened a private message to Wu Qing, but suddenly felt at a loss for words. She tried to remember how Prince spoke to his brother in-game, but her mind was drawing a blank.

After several steadying breaths, she decided to just keep it simple and to the point. **"…Wu Qing?"**

**"What is it, sis?"** Her face flushed at the sound of his voice, and for a moment she forgot why she messaged him in the first place. All of the confidence she usually flaunted was forgotten. As she tried to piece together a response, he suddenly made an extremely loud noise over the messaging system. She winced slightly as his voice blared into her ears, **"OH, SIS!"**

**"W-what?"** she called back, feeling slightly annoyed that he had derailed her train of thought.

**"I came up with something for breakfast!"**

**"Huh?"**

**"Don't 'huh' me! You said I could pick whatever I wanted! No take-backs!"**

**"Oh…" **Lolidragon nodded in remembrance. She had said that. She rolled her eyes at how similar Wu Qing was to Prince when it came to food. Picking up the pen Gui had thrown at her earlier, she scribbled down what Wu Qing was listing off to her, knowing it would be very bad if Prince didn't make the food that morning after promising.

**"Got everything?"** he asked eagerly, and somewhat breathlessly, after he'd finished.

**"Yeah, I've got it…"** she muttered as she folded up the paper and put it in her pocket, hoping Prince actually knew how to make these things. She took another deep breath and attempted to scrape together her courage. **"Wu Qing."**

**"What?"**

**"Do you, ah, want to come train with the Odd Squad in a bit? We're going to go train right outside the city…"**she finally asked, attempting to sound energetic.

He was silent for a few minutes. Lolidragon inwardly kicked herself. He was probably wondering why "Prince" was acting so weird. She felt annoyance at herself build up as she realized she should have asked Prince about it before inviting Wu Qing.

**"Yeah, I can come," **he finally answered. Lolidragon let out a whoosh of relieved breath, but then froze again as he continued. **"Don't you usually ask Zhuo-gēge about this stuff?"**

Lolidragon let her head fall onto the table with a loud thump. Gui abruptly looked up at her in alarm, but she ignored him. She had no idea how to reply to Wu Qing's question. She didn't even know who this Zhuo-gēge person was, let alone what Prince usually talked to him about. She thought it was probably Wicked, but she didn't want to make any assumptions.

**"Sis?"**

**"Ah…"** Lolidragon sat up straight again when she realized she hadn't answered. **"Y-yeah, I do. Sorry."**

Wu Qing was silent for another moment, and then messaged hesitantly, **"Are you feeling okay? You sound weird."**

**"I'm fine!" **she snapped angrily, wishing she hadn't messaged him in the first place. **"Are you coming or not?"**

**"Yeah,"** he chuckled for a moment. **"Oh, and Zhuo-gēge says he's coming, too."**

She nodded in response, but then realized he couldn't see her. **"Okay, see you in a bit, then…"**

**"Bye, sis!"**

Lolidragon stared blankly at the table, feeling slightly happy that she'd invited him, though it had been extremely nerve-wracking. If she'd been in her own body, she probably would have just run off to find him and dragged him off to train rather than asking nicely.

With a sigh, Lolidragon looked up and noticed Gui was still staring at her. "What?"

"Who were you talking to?" he asked, the suspicion back in his tone.

She stared back at him for a few moments, and then answered, "I was inviting Wicked and Wu Qing to join us for training."

Gui's face immediately darkened with anger. He pressed his lips together so tightly, they turned white. Setting down his pen with deliberate calmness, he then pushed his papers to one side before suddenly standing up and furiously shoving his chair at the table.

"You sure know how to ruin people's nights," he growled at her, and then picked up the snoring Meatbun off the table. Lolidragon shrugged wordlessly and looked away from him, feeling slightly frightened of his expression. Gui sighed and his face relaxed a tiny bit. "Well, I'm done, so come on. Let's go join Prince." He turned away from her and walked from the table without looking back to see if she was coming or not. Lolidragon watched him guiltily for a moment before quietly standing up and following, making a mental note to stop being so impulsive in the future.


	5. The Missing Teammate

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Lolidragon's fun-filled night was starting to take a turn for the worst. Of course, she could have taken out her irritation on Gui and no one would think it strange, but her sources of annoyance were starting to multiply to the point where she didn't quite know where to start being annoyed.

As Gui looked over his shoulder, making an impatient noise for the umpteenth time that minute, murdering him started seeming like a very, very good idea. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looked back out along the dirt road leading out of the city, and then quickly turned back around to search the faces of the people just inside the city gates. Lolidragon was trying her hardest to not yell at him, since she had been purposefully irritating him only a little while ago, but it was getting difficult to hold herself back. She turned and stepped a meter or so away, so she couldn't see his restless movements. That didn't stop the little noises he was making from reaching her ears.

Gritting her teeth, Lolidragon whirled back around and stomped over to the bard. He didn't notice her advancements until she was already beside him. He turned to look at her in shock as she grabbed Meatbun out of his hands, put the bun safely on top of her head, and punched Gui's jaw. She felt slightly better as he fell to the ground, and she turned back away to survey the scenery again. It was becoming increasingly clear to her why Prince was always so violent with Gui; it was so refreshing.

Gui sat up with a whimper and looked at her in confusion. "What was that for?" His obliviousness over his actions only made her want to punch him again. At least she knew when she was annoying someone.

"I see you're finally starting to act like Prince," Ugly Wolf's amused voice boomed out behind her.

"Though you really need to beat him unconscious if you want to be just like Prince-gēge," Doll said knowingly.

Lolidragon smirked and glanced over her shoulder as the rest of their teammates stepped out of the city gate. "Thanks for the tip, Doll. I'll be sure to practice more."

"You don't have to!" Gui yelled.

Yu Lian paused a moment as she stepped out of the shadows of the city gate, and then made a bee-line for Gui, watching him closely as he stood up and rubbed his cheek. He glanced at her and then took several steps away, with an extremely frightened expression.

"Gui." Yu Lian glowered at him and crossed her arms. "Why are _you_ here‽ I told you to stay at the tower and finish your work!"

"W-well," Gui mumbled, shrugged slightly, and fixed his gaze on a spot on the horizon somewhere, so he didn't have to look at her horrifying face.

"Prince!" Yu Lian snapped and turned on Lolidragon. Lolidragon flinched and leaned back slightly, though Yu Lian was nowhere near her. "Why did you let him leave‽"

"He said he was done!" Lolidragon yelled and pointed accusingly at Gui. His face paled and he twisted his fingers around his fluffy shirt sleeve, but he didn't open his mouth to explain himself. Yu Lian stared at him silently. Several very still moments passed. Gui began to sweat slightly under her unwavering gaze.

"I-I," he murmured slightly. "Well, I did finish…"

Yu Lian's eyes narrowed and the warm, summery day seemed to take on a cold chill. "Gui."

"Y-yes?"

"You had two weeks worth of designs and proofs to go over. You couldn't possibly have gotten all of those finished in an _hour_."

He quickly took several more steps away from her. "I finished…"

"How many?"

"Four…"

"GUI!"

As Yu Lian stepped menacingly toward him, Gui's eyes widened and he quickly ran to hide behind Lolidragon and grabbed her shoulders. She wondered if in his fright he'd somehow forgotten that she wasn't Prince, but then he took Meatbun off her head and abruptly shoved her in Yu Lian's direction. He quickly ran away down the dirt road as if he thought Lolidragon would be able to slow the magician down.

"It's all her fault!" he yelled over his shoulder as he made his escape, carrying the poor, confused bun along with him. They watched in silence as he ran away as fast as he could, toward the woods where Prince was training. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for him to disappear among the tree trunks after tripping several times along the way.

"That moron," Yu Lian sighed and stepped over to stand beside Ugly Wolf. "He's going to get it later."

"Um…We're here."

Lolidragon glanced toward the gate and finally noticed Wicked and Wu Qing standing there with bewildered expressions. Sunshine and Kenshin were behind them, both staring at Lolidragon intently. Dread filled her for a moment as she wondered if the pets somehow suspected her. Meatbun hadn't acted any differently toward her than he did to Prince, but then again, the entire time he'd either been sitting on on Doll's head or asleep.

She quickly plastered what she hoped was a natural smile on her face and waved. "Hey, guys."

Wicked hurried over to Lolidragon and smiled at her warmly. "Hi, Prince." Lolidragon was suddenly filled with guilt as she looked up at his fond expression. It was one thing to tease Gui about his feelings for Prince since not only did he know about the situation, he was also extremely easy to pick on. But it was a whole different matter when it came to leading on Wicked.

His face drooped slightly as she continued to stare at him blankly. **"Xiao Lan, are you feeling okay? Yang Ming said you were acting kind of weird earlier."**

She hurriedly shook her head and smiled at him reassuringly as she turned and walked down the path toward the woods, hoping that Prince wouldn't murder her later. **"Oh! I'm fine, no need to worry about me."**

He nodded for a moment as he walked by her side, not quite looking convinced. He stared toward the forest and then looked down at her, with a slight frown. "Why was Gui acting like that?"

Lolidragon shrugged, not even bothering to make up an excuse. "He's just being stupid again."

Wicked didn't seem to need any more of an explanation than that. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I see…"

Wu Qing fell into step on Lolidragon's other side and gave her an eager smile. She had no idea how to react, and pointlessly wished she'd been more observant when it came to how Prince interacted with other people. **"Hey, sis! Did you finish that assignment yet?"**

**"Oh, right,"** Wicked agreed with a nod. **"I wanted to come over after school and work on that with you two."**

Lolidragon's face paled as she walked between the two unknowingly oppressive men. She was once again filled with self-loathing as she tried to imagine how Prince would respond to them. **"I did…"** She smiled at Wu Qing. He gave her a disbelieving look and she immediately knew she'd said the wrong thing. **"Not,"** she swiftly added, hoping she was telling the truth.

His face cleared and he nodded sneakily. **"With Zhuo-gēge there, we'll get it done in no time!"**

**"Hey, I'm not going to do all your work like last time,"** Wicked reprimanded and frowned at him.

**"Yeah, do your own work, moron,"** Lolidragon ventured to grumble at Wu Qing. Wicked laughed at her words and Lolidragon relaxed slightly, feeling relieved that they hadn't noticed anything yet. She hoped she'd be able to make it last until she had the real Prince there as backup.

A few minutes later as they were finally entering the trees, a loud crashing noise made Lolidragon look up. Without thinking, she leapt to one side and grabbed Wu Qing to dodge when Gui suddenly burst out of the trees and underbrush, and collided with Wicked, crying loudly as they both fell down and landed heavily on the path. "PRINCE!"

"YOU IDIOT, GET OFF ME!"

"PRINCE!"

"I SAID GET OFF!" Wicked screamed through Gui's hysterics. He peeled Gui's arms off and threw him to one side before standing up, breathing heavily from getting unexpectedly run over.

"Are you okay, Wicked?" Lolidragon asked hesitantly, attempting to hold back her laughter as she let go of Wu Qing. He nodded at her and then glared at Gui as he shakily stood up.

"What the hell did you do that for‽" Wicked snapped at him, and began picking leaves and twigs out of his hair.

Gui glowered at him for a moment and then sniffed loudly. "Lolidragon isn't here!"

Wicked gave him a confused look and glanced around. "…So?"

"Oh, yeah. Where is she, Prince?" Wu Qing looked at Lolidragon, with raised eyebrows. She felt a stab of anger at him, wondering if he'd really only just then noticed her absence.

"She was supposed to be in there," Lolidragon muttered and pointed into the woods.

Doll's eyes widened and she searched the trunks worriedly. "But I gave her such easy directions!"

"Why would Lolidragon need directions?" Wu Qing snorted.

"M-maybe you just overlooked her, Gui." Ugly Wolf chuckled slightly, trying and failing to cover up his concerned tone.

"Look how tiny this forest is," Gui snapped and waved an arm behind him. Lolidragon was just barely able to see the tree line on the other side of the woods. The patch of trees could hardly be referred to as a "forest," but there were several species of monsters that lived in there regardless of its small size. "I ran all over, but she isn't here! Anyway, her hideous armor would be easy to spot!"

"M—Her armor isn't hideous!" Lolidragon yelled indignantly before she could stop herself.

As she blanched under several mildly surprised stares, Yu Lian held up her hand before anyone could say anything. "Okay, come on. We're getting off-topic."

"Maybe she thought I meant the _other_ forest just south of here," Doll suggested. "But I did say 'just outside the city.'"

"Let's go check there," Lolidragon said. She could hardly believe that Prince had managed to get lost going to such an obvious place, with such obvious directions to follow. Though, Prince had a reputation for getting lost simply walking across a room.

Lolidragon took off through the trees and glanced back to Gui's distressed face. "Did you try messaging her?"

He nodded weakly, hurrying along behind her. "She didn't reply."

"I don't get why you guys are getting so worked up over this," Wicked said and frowned as he followed along behind. "She probably just went back to the city or something."

"She's not responding to my messages either," Wu Qing said uneasily.

"Don't worry," Lolidragon sighed, and smiled encouragingly back at them, more over feeling pleased about Wu Qing's concerned tone than at wanting to raise everyone's spirits. "We'll find her."


	6. Attempted Murder

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Long Shui Han tightly clutched her car's steering wheel, and stared determinedly out the windshield. It had been several days since Prince had disappeared somewhere with Lolidragon's body, and she was at the end of her patience. Shui Han had continued to pretend to be Prince under the rest of the team's request, but it was getting very aggravating. She never thought she could regret something as much as she regretted headbutting Prince. It had turned out to be extremely inconvenient for her, and not at all fun like she'd thought it would be.

So, there she was, sitting in her car outside X University, wondering how she was supposed to find Prince to get an explanation. It would have been a very easy task, since she knew what Prince really looked like, but the campus was much larger than she'd predicted, and she didn't particularly want to go wander around aimlessly. Especially since that moron of a bard might recognize her and get in the way. Sunglasses could only do so much when it came to disguising her against people whom she knew. However, sitting in wait, like a creepy stalker, to see if Prince would walk past didn't seem like such a good option, either.

Shui Han waited several more minutes, inspecting the faces of the people passing by, while trying to appear like she wasn't paying attention to them. She was still getting strange looks, regardless of her efforts to be inconspicuous. She attempted to sink lower in her car seat to be less noticeable, though it only seemed to make her noticed even more, and felt stabs of annoyance toward her _Second Life_ avatar and how sneaky it was. Lolidragon's skills as a thief would have been very handy to have at that moment. But if Shui Han had Lolidragon, she wouldn't be staring at people out her car window, in the parking lot of a university she didn't attend.

Adjusting the sunglasses on her face, Shui Han finally stepped out of her car and locked it behind herself. Sitting still was getting her nowhere. Even going to find Gui was starting to seem like a better option than scaring random passerby with her staring. She didn't want to get reported as a suspicious person lurking in the parking lot. Plus she knew she could always try to find Ugly Wolf rather than Gui, if she so needed.

Stuffing her car keys into her jacket pocket, she slowly walked down the sidewalk bordering the parking lot, running her eyes over the buildings and stretches of grass in between. With a nervous look over her shoulder, she sped up her pace and walked toward one of the larger buildings, where she could see a number of people sitting outside on the benches and on the grass. It was around lunch time, and the day was nice, so she hoped Prince would be eating somewhere outdoors. That is, if Prince even had classes that day.

It didn't take her long to realize Prince wasn't among the students there, so she quickly moved on to the next building. Prince wasn't at that one, nor at the one after that. Twenty minutes later, she gave a frustrated growl, crossed her arms, and looked around. "Stupid university."

As she began to walk off toward another building, she paused and turned back the way she'd come. The familiar-looking face of Prince's good friend, Yun, disappeared around the corner of the building she'd just walked past. She hurried after him, hoping she'd be able to catch up. Once she reached the building, she peeked around the corner. He had come to a stop beside the entrance, talking with several other people who Shui Han recognized immediately. She hadn't known so many of them were at the same university. Her eyes wandered over the group as a triumphant grin spread across her face. Yun, Jing, Wicked, Wu Qing.

Prince.

She halted her gaze on Lan, and narrowed her eyes in scrutiny. Even if she hadn't seen her before, Shui Han felt as though she would have been able to recognize her anyway. She looked much calmer and reserved than she usually did in _Second Life_, but her basic behavior was almost identical. And she looked a bit like Prince, besides. Shui Han wondered how in the world Gui had gone this long without recognizing her. It seemed as though anyone with a smudge of perception who'd spent time with her in and out of the game would be able to easily put them together.

Shui Han watched in silence as Yun and Jing waved at the other three and hurried into the building's entrance. Several more minutes passed, and Shui Han began to mentally shoo the Zhuo-gēge person away. She wanted to be seen by as few people as possible while she interrogated Lan on Lolidragon's disappearance. Plus she didn't know how he would react to her having pretended to be Prince. It was already bad enough with Gui's constantly angry mood, she didn't need another of Prince's little boyfriends getting uppity with her.

She felt slightly surprised after a moment, as her silent dismissals seemed to work. Zhuo waved goodbye at Lan and Yang Ming, and walked off toward a different building. Shui Han sent one more cautious look around the area, and saw no one heading their way. The moment seemed opportune.

Stepping out onto the path, she quickly walked toward the twins, trying to decide what the best way to get their attention would be. Punching Lan for all the trouble she'd caused sounded very appealing, but not particularly smart, especially since it wasn't actually Lan who'd caused the problems. Plus they would probably attack her if she did that. She decided to attempt a calm approach, though she wasn't feeling particularly calm at the moment.

Steeling herself against her nervousness, she planted herself in the middle of the walkway, a meter away from them. Their conversation dropped off as they noticed her standing there, wordlessly staring.

"Prince," Shui Han called, frowning at the girl, and then glancing at her brother, trying to keep her thoughts off of how handsome he looked. "Wu Qing."

"…Who the heck are you?" He frowned back, stepping closer to his sister, whose eyebrows had risen so far they were hidden behind her bangs.

Shui Han crossed her arms and scowled at them from behind her sunglasses. She couldn't understand why everyone around her was so ridiculously stolid. "Do you two _really_ have to ask?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Lan's eyes widened as she seemed to mentally grasp what was going on at long last. Without warning, Shui Han was suddenly grabbed around the middle and hugged in Lan's surprisingly strong embrace. "LOLIDRAGO-O-ON! You're here!"

Yang Ming's mouth dropped open. "Huh?"

"Let go! You're going to suffocate me!" Shui Han gasped, completely caught off guard by Lan's abrupt and very weepy reaction to her visit.

"Lolidragon!" Lan wailed at Shui Han, tears streaming down her face. "You have to rescue me! I–!"

"Be quiet! People will overhear!" Shui Han snapped, clamping a hand over Lan's mouth and dragging her off the walkway, toward the building. Yang Ming followed them a moment later, looking extremely bewildered at the situation. Shui Han pushed Lan down onto a bench and sat beside her. "Where the heck have you been‽"

"I don't know!" Lan yelled, pulling on Shui Han's arm and completely ignoring her requests for her to be quiet.

"You…!" Shui Han snarled at Lan, causing the younger girl to shrink away slightly in fright. "Do you know how annoying it's been, pretending to be you‽ All you had to do was go to that stupid forest! How could anyone possibly get lost going–"

"I DIDN'T GET LOST!" Lan interrupted, suddenly looking very angry as if the accusation was completely unjustified.

Shui Han stared at her blankly, not quite believing the denial. "So, what _did_ you do?"

"Someone kidnapped me!"

Shui Han's eyes widened in horror. Her precious Lolidragon had been kidnapped. She hadn't even known it was possible to even kidnap a thief; they were so fast.

She stood up and turned on Lan, staring down at her menacingly. "YOU GOT ME _KIDNAPPED_‽"

"It's not my fault!" Lan snapped, standing up as well and hiding behind Yang Ming. He looked like he didn't know what to do, getting caught between the two women. "You're the one who switched us in the first place!"

Shui Han grabbed Yang Ming's shoulders and attempted to push him out of the way. "Quit hiding and come here!"

"No!" Lan refused, gripping the back of her brother's shirt tightly and turning him around as Shui Han tried to step behind him. "Stop that!"

"H-Hey!" Yang Ming held up his hands, trying to ward off the attacks, which were coming from all directions. "Just calm down, you two!"

"Lolidragon, stop!" Lan yelled as Shui Han finally got ahold of her, and put her in a headlock. "AAHH! Let go!"

"Not until you tell me why you let me get kidnapped!"

"There's no time to explain right now!" Lan attempted to pry Shui Han's arms off, but couldn't manage it.

"Stop making excuses!"

"No, really! There—OH, CRAP!" Lan's eyes widened, but not from getting strangled. Shui Han paused and looked toward where she was staring. Gui and a burly man Shui Han figured was Ugly Wolf were both walking toward them, both wearing extremely alarmed expressions.

Rather than letting Lan go, Shui Han simply turned around in panic and stared around herself wildly. She'd forgotten to give herself an escape route in case the wrong people spotted her. "Oh, no!"

"L-let go…! My neck!"

"What in the world?" Gui asked faintly, and Shui Han heard his footsteps speed up as he hurried along the path toward them. She reflexively tightened her grip in her nervousness.

"He's seen us! Let go, Lolidragon! Ow!"

"Hey, let her go!" Gui yelled as he reached them. He clamped his hands around Shui Han's arms and he pulled her off Lan. "What do you think you're doing to my student‽"

Lan straightened immediately and dismissively waved one of her hands at Gui, the other hand clutching at her throat. "N-no, Professor Min! It's nothing!"

"That wasn't 'nothing'! She was choking you!" Gui shot her an incredulous look as the other man hurried forward to inspect her neck.

Shui Han pulled her arm out of Gui's grip and glared at him. "She said it's nothing, so go away!"

Gui's mouth dropped open in shock as he finally looked at her. He stumbled backward with a yell of terror and grabbed the other man's arm instead as if he would be able to protect him from Shui Han. "Lolidragon! You crazed maniac! Why were you trying to–!"

"It's nothing!"

"Stop saying that!"

"But–!"

"Okay, everyone just calm down," the other man commanded firmly, staring at everyone reprovingly. He took a deep breath as everyone went silent. "First," he said quietly, turning to Lan in concern. "Are you alright?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"Good. Second," he turned to Gui and continued, "your class is about to start, so go on ahead of me."

"But she–" Gui started, but was interrupted.

"Gui, just go! You can hear her explanation afterward!"

Gui looked like he wanted nothing more than to continue arguing, but nodded instead. "Okay, fine." He sighed and started toward the building. "Come on, you two." Lan and Yang Ming hurried after him, and all three disappeared inside without looking back.

"Now then, Lolidragon."

Shui Han turned to him and attempted to smile. "H-hey, Ugly Wolf. I can explain…that."

He stared at her quietly for a moment and then unexpectedly grinned, sending a glance toward the building entrance. "Oh, don't worry. I don't need you to." He put a hand on her shoulder and directed her toward the door. "You can wait for Gui in the infirmary. I'm Li Tian Lang, by the way."

"Ah…?" she nodded in bewilderment at getting steered inside. She'd been expecting to be kicked off the campus. "I'm Long Shui Han."

He smiled down at her warmly. "Nice to meet you. Now then, you better start coming up with a good story for Gui as to why you were attempting to murder Feng Lan."


	7. The Explanation

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Lan glanced at the open door to the university infirmary and looked back at Shui Han's face, shaking her head slightly. She got a glare in return, but that didn't make her back down. "Why do I have to go in there, too?" she whispered furiously, nearly stomping her foot in anger.

"Because," Shui Han snapped back, "you're the only one who knows what happened to Prince…or Lolidragon…! Whoever the heck it is, I don't even know anymore! We have to come up with some plan to rescue my character, since you stupidly got her kidnapped!"

"But why do I have to tell _them_?" Lan asked, pointing her hand through the door, where Tian Lang and Gui Wen were sitting in wait. She sighed and glanced toward Yang Ming and Ling Bin. "I don't mind telling _you_ three," she said quietly. "But how am I supposed to explain to _them_ why I'm the one who knows?"

"You'll come up with something. Anyway, it's not like you have to tell them you're Prince, so that's that," Shui Han said with finality. She grabbed Lan by the arm and dragged her inside before Lan could say anything else in her own defense. "Hey, you two!" she said with a wave toward the two men, and forcefully pushed Lan onto the bed to sit. Lan felt slightly relieved when Yang Ming and Ling Bin sat on either side of her, but that feeling disappeared when she looked at the other two.

Gui Wen glanced at Lan and then back at Shui Han. "Why is she here, too?"

Lan mentally patted him on the back, hoping he would find some excuse for her to go. She didn't care what reason it was, she just wanted to leave. With a glance at the clock, she frowned. It wasn't nearing dinner time yet, so she couldn't excuse herself to go home to cook. She couldn't remember if she had any pressing homework assignments she could use as an escape route, either.

Shui Han sighed and plopped herself down in an empty chair. "I thought you wanted an explanation for my actions earlier?"

Gui Wen looked annoyed that she was getting so comfortable. "Oh, I suppose so."

With a smile, Shui Han leaned forward slightly and took a deep breath. "She was eating lunch, you see, and she choked on a bite of food."

Gui Wen stared at her for a moment in utter disbelief. "And that caused you to further her choking, why…?"

Shui Han shrugged and sighed. "I thought I was helping wring it out of her throat!"

Lan shot her an angry look. That excuse was ridiculous. It would take a complete and total moron to think she was telling the truth. Lan glanced at Gui Wen. He was staring at Shui Han with wide eyes, and nodding slightly as if he could see what had happened now.

That moron.

Tian Lang's face turned red and his shoulders started shaking. Covering his mouth with one hand, he looked away from Shui Han with an extremely strained expression. Taking several deep breaths, he glanced back. "That was…definitely not how you're supposed to perform the Heimlich maneuver," he said quietly, sounding like he was trying very hard to not laugh.

"Oh!" Shui Han said brightly, shrugging again and falling back on her chair. "Well, now I know!" She shot Lan a smile. "Next time you choke, I'll be sure to do it properly."

"Please, don't even try," Lan grumbled at her, rubbing her still-sore neck for a moment. Standing up, she announced, "Well, time for me to go!"

"Sit back down!" Shui Han commanded, waving a hand at Lan. "You're not getting away so easily."

Lan shot her a long-suffering look and slowly lowered herself back onto the bed. "But–"

"Don't 'but' me," the other woman warned, narrowing her eyes. Lan felt as though she was a small animal getting stared down by a predator. "Out with it!"

"What are you going on about now?" Gui Wen asked in annoyance. "I have more important things to do other than talk to _you_."

"Shut your mouth."

Rather than shutting, it fell open in shock at Shui Han's rudeness, as if he wasn't used to getting treated in such a way by Prince every single day. He made a sputtery noise. Tian Lang patted his shoulder before he could retort. "Please, let's stop fighting. Things will go much faster without that." He shifted in his seat to face Lan and stared at her expectantly.

Lan's eyebrows lowered and she glanced at Shui Han. She nodded at Lan as if that would help her explain easier. Lan sighed, and resigned herself to her fate. She had Yang Ming and Ling Bin to back her up, anyway. "Prince–"

"Prince‽" Gui Wen suddenly interrupted, and looked at her with suspicion. "What about Prince?"

"Shut _up_!" Shui Han scolded, kicking her leg at him.

"I won't!" he snapped at her, crossing his arms defiantly as he scooted his chair backward so she couldn't reach him. He looked back at Lan, and frowned. "You know Prince?"

Lan gulped, and nodded slightly. "Yeah…"

He looked extremely surprised, and somewhat jealous. "How do you know His Highness?"

"Childhood friends," Ling Bin supplied in Lan's place, scowling at Gui Wen.

Feeling extremely grateful for Ling Bin's help, Lan took a deep breath and continued, "He got kidnapped. He didn't get _lost_," she explained in irritation, refraining from defending herself too much.

Gui Wen's eyes shone with worry and he shifted uneasily in his seat. "You know where he is…?"

"Not exactly," Lan admitted with a shrug. "Uh, he said he was blindfolded and knocked unconscious. He hasn't logged in for a while, apparently he's tied up in a room somewhere."

"Why hasn't he messaged us for help?" Tian Lang asked with a confused look.

"The kidnappers have a magician who casted a confusion spell on him. And there's a warrior who–"

Gui Wen abruptly stood up, nearly knocking his chair over. "HIS HIGHNESS IS BEING _TORTURED_‽" Lan stared up at him, wide-eyed, as he turned on Shui Han furiously and roared, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, LOLIDRAGON!"

"Gui, calm down!" Tian Lang said, hurrying to shut the infirmary door so no one would overhear. He came back a moment later and pushed Gui Wen back onto his chair. "Pointing fingers isn't going to help us rescue Prince any faster!"

Gui Wen breathed heavily for a moment, and the color in his cheeks went down slightly as he nodded. He looked back toward Lan, with complete determination radiating off his face. "Did Prince tell you any details on his whereabouts?"

Lan hurriedly shook her head, hoping he wasn't going to explode again. "No," she answered hesitantly, and tried to remember what the room she was stuck in was like. It had been difficult to make anything out when that stupid magician had continually muddled up her mind with spells. "It—um, he said it was cold and kind of damp, with the sound of a lot of footsteps overhead, like a basement or something. And there was a lot of clutter on the floor, empty boxes and things like that. But the blindfold wasn't taken off, so…"

"What about the kidnappers themselves?" Gui Wen pressed.

"Female magician, two men as well. By the way they sound when they move, both are warriors."

Gui Wen nodded, and stood up again, much more calmly than before. Sighing slightly, he sent one more suspicious look at Lan. "Thank you for the information," he said, and left the infirmary.

Lan heaved a relieved sigh and stood up, feeling very glad that he hadn't asked her just why she knew all of that. She was probably going to get interrogated later as he demanded to know why Prince had confided in some girl rather than his own teammates, but Lan would deal with that when the time came. "Deal with it" meaning punching Gui until he willingly shut up, or was physically incapable of asking anymore.

Yang Ming and Ling Bin followed her across the small room, and she turned back to look at Shui Han and Tian Lang. "Hope you find him soon," she said with an encouraging smile, hoping very much that they would.


	8. The Failed Search

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Yu Lian ran her eyes over the rows of ledgers arranged on the shelves in front of her, and sighed. She was quite proud of the swift and extensive growth of Infinite City that had taken place ever since she and the others had won the land, but at times such as this, the growth seemed to be more of a hindrance than a blessing. Basing the search for Prince on the information given to the team by one of Gui's students, they had narrowed their search down considerably, but the places Prince could have been were still numerous. They had exhausted several books of city records already, but the kidnapped elf remained unaccounted for.

Frowning slightly at Prince's carelessness, Yu Lian lifted a hand, pulled several of the books off the shelf, and piled them into the waiting arms of Ugly Wolf, and then grabbed three more and stepped away from the shelf. "I really hope these are the ones," she muttered, more to herself than to her husband, who was trailing along at her elbow and reading the book spines.

"Me too," he said quietly as they hurried back to the table where the others were standing in wait, looking over an enormous note-covered map of the city. As the pair set their burdens atop the table, the others looked up expectantly.

"These are the last of the northern section of Infinite City's building registrations," Yu Lian announced, patting her hand on the books in front of herself. "But we still haven't checked the eastern side, and much of the south."

"There's also the possibility that they may have moved him since we began searching," Wicked pointed out, staring down at the map in anxiousness.

A loud snapping noise made Yu Lian turn her head. Gui looked down at his hand in slight surprise. "Gui, you moron," Lolidragon fumed as she snatched away the broken pencil from his fingers, and tossed it to one side where a small pile of pencil halves was starting to accumulate.

Gui gave Lolidragon a huff and crossed his arms. "His Highness is more important than a few pencils."

"Don't use your worry over Prince's kidnapping as an excuse to break things," Yu Lian reprimanded, sliding the cup full of not-broken pencils away from him. She turned back to the others and gritted her teeth. "You two, stop doodling on the map!" Leaning over the table, she took the pencils away from Doll's hand and Meatbun's mouth. They both gave her disappointed, pouting frowns.

"Is that a giant turkey?" Wu Qing inquired with an amused expression as he bent over the table to look at the scribbled-on weapon's shop on the map.

"Who cares if it's a turkey or a bowl of soup‽" Lolidragon growled, slapping her hand on the table. "Stop getting distracted and focus already yet! My gaming life is on the line, and you're all goofing around!"

"Quit your whining," Gui ordered, giving her a disapproving glance before leaning over the table, resting his hands on the edges of the map. "You don't have any right to complain about what we're doing when this is all your fault."

"How was I supposed to know the moron would go and get himself kidnapped‽" Lolidragon yelled, looking like she was about to pulverize the bard. "I just thought–"

"You didn't _think_," Gui interrupted in irritation, "and that's the problem!"

"Neither do you most of the time, you blockhead!" Lolidragon seized Gui by the front of his purple robes and began to shake him back and forth. Rather than yelling all of the usual frantic apologies at "Prince," he simply looked bored over Lolidragon's efforts at intimidating him.

"Stop fighting, or else I'll reassign both of you to janitorial duties!" Yu Lian threatened, furiously running her eyes over them as they glanced at her fearfully, and she turned back to the table. "There are more important things to discuss than who is at fault, so just shut up and let's decide on where to search next. Now then…"

Half an hour later, they were all standing down the road to a small weapons shop. Being in a rather nice spot, there was a steady flow of customers. It also had a basement, and, according to the registration records, the building owner was a female magician. It seemed to fit Gui's student's description. Then again, so had many other places.

Yu Lian took a deep breath and nodded to the others. "Remember, don't go stampeding in like last time. Wicked, Kenshin, take some of Jing's illusionary charms and search for the entrance to the basement, and–"

"Why does _he_ get to go to the basement‽" Gui demanded indignantly, pointing his finger angrily at Wicked. "He got to last time, too! I want to–"

"The one time you did it, you were in such a hurry you fell down the basement stairs and ruined all of our efforts at being under cover! If the kidnappers get wind of what we're doing, the moron will be in even more danger!" Yu Lian snarled. Gui quailed somewhat under her furious stare, and seemed to lose the will to continue arguing. "Lolidragon, Sunshine, Gui, you three distract the shopkeeper. Everyone else, stay out here with me to wait for Wicked and Kenshin to finish their search," Yu Lian ordered firmly.

Everyone obediently fanned out, and Yu Lian watched intently as they filtered into the shop one-by-one. Several minutes passed, when Wicked's voice came over the team channel, **"We found the basement entrance, we're going in now."**

**"Be careful,"** Yu Lian warned, feeling extremely nervous. She grabbed Ugly Wolf's hand and squeezed it tightly in an effort to gain a modicum of comfort, and ease some of her tension.

**"We found something!"** Wicked called.

**"WHAT, WHAT IS IT‽"** Gui screamed frantically. **"IS IT HIS HIGHNESS‽"**

**"I said some**_**thing**_**, not some**_**one**_**! It's one of Lolidragon's boots,"** Wicked continued angrily. **"And it looks like there was a fight down here."**

**"PRI-I-I-INCE!"** Gui wailed. Yu Lian wondered if he was even trying to distract the shopkeeper anymore. Then again, a violently crying bard would potentially be more distracting than just some conversation.

**"GUI, SHUT UP!"** several people yelled at once, not that it seemed to do any good as he continued to cry over the chat.

A loud crashing noise sounded out from behind the shop, and Yu Lian hurried forward with the others. **"Wicked, get back out here!"** she urged, slipping into the small, dim alley between the shop walls. Once they reached the back of the shop, she ran her eyes over the broken, splintered wood door, and bit her lip in anger, mentally berating herself for not thinking of having someone watch this door as well.

The five who'd been inside ran out a moment later. A yell from the east set them off again. It was difficult with so many people, but they managed to somehow keep up with those they were pursuing through the closely-walled path of the winding back roads behind the small shops. As an unfamiliar voice from in front of them spoke, Kenshin dashed forward around a corner, and unsheathed his katana. A sudden blast of magical energy threw him backward, and caused a large chunk of a nearby wall to fly through the air and rain down on them.

A few moments later, Yu Lian blinked up at the patch of blue sky she could see through the gap between rooftops, wondering how she hadn't been pelted with bricks. Looking down, she gasped and began to wriggle around as Ugly Wolf lifted himself off her with a groan. He'd shielded her. "Are you okay?" he asked, eyes shining with concern as he looked her over.

"Y-yes," she answered, lifting a hand to pat his fuzzy cheek. "Are you?"

"I'll be fine," he chuckled, smiling warmly as he helped her to her feet.

Yu Lian glanced about the wreckage, and watched as the others picked themselves up. Ugly Wolf peered around the corner where the people had fled, and turned around with a sigh. "They're probably long-gone by now."

"Kenshin," Yu Lian called hopefully. The pet briefly glanced at her and returned to picking pieces of brick out of his red hair. "Did you see what they looked like?"

He gave a nod. Yu Lian smiled in relief. That information would help them immensely.

Lolidragon heaved a sigh and readjusted the blood tiara on her forehead from where it had slipped when she fell. Sweeping her eyes over the others, she raised a pale eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Well? Where's my boot?"


	9. Stifling Darkness

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

**_Note – _**_This happens during the time frame of the last chapter. Poor Prince! ;-;_

* * *

Prince blearily stared at the dingy corner of the basement, wondering how many years it had been since he'd been kidnapped. The stone walls, having no windows, blocked out any sunlight he could have used judge how much time passed by. Plus that stupid magician was still casting that stupid confusion spell, so he had no idea just how long he'd been tied up in that cold, dark room. Still, Prince felt slightly impressed by how long the woman had kept up the spell. The cost of mana potions must have been huge, drinking so many until even the woman's veins were probably filled with potion rather than blood.

Yu Lian definitely wouldn't condone such spending.

Trying to blink away the woozy dizziness, Prince glanced upward as one of the warrior kidnappers began to pace back and forth impatiently, heavy boots thudding across the cold floor. "How long are we going to keep her here‽" he whined at the magician, fat lips puckered in a childish pout. "It's been _days _and we haven't even given the Odd Squad our ransom note yet!"

"Shut up," the woman snarled in a strained voice as she continued to keep her hold on the spell, and then added in a much steadier tone, "I'm sure he knows what he's doing, so pipe down and do what you were told."

"But I'm so bored," he continued, drawing out each syllable in a very annoying drawl. Prince inwardly glared at him. So what if he was feeling bored? Prince was bored a million times as much from their repetitive conversations. They could've at least talked about something more interesting, to keep Prince entertained while he was tied up. Logging out to relieve the monotony was a tempting choice, but he'd been online as much as possible ever since he'd told the others in real life where he was, in a hope that they would hurry their butts up and find him already yet.

Prince's eyes widened in horror as he felt the cold fingers of the warrior trail down the bare strip of his thigh, coming to a halt at the top of that irritatingly tall, pink boot. Furiously struggling against the spell and ropes tying him down, Prince attempted to get away from the man, but to no avail. He simply chuckled at Prince's weak movements.

"Hey," the magician called warningly as the warrior began to remove Prince's boot. "What'd he tell you about touching her‽ I don't want to get in trouble again because you're being stupid! And neither do I want to watch you being gross!"

"He won't find out," came the mischievous reply as the boot was slipped out from under the ropes, taken off, and tossed to one side. Prince was filled with a cold dread as his eyes searched the empty staircase. The warrior had done this before, but the other one had always intervened. Now that he wasn't present, it seemed the man had gained new courage. Or stupidity.

"He's too busy upstairs playing watchman. Anyway, you can just close your eyes."

Prince involuntarily let out a whimpering noise as the caressing continued, and the magician gave a sigh, averting her eyes toward the cobwebbed ceiling. "Don't complain later when you get your ass kicked."

The wandering hands of lechery traveled all over Prince's exposed leg, and back up to the bottom of his armored skirt. Inwardly screaming, he squeezed his eyes shut and attempted once again to message his teammates, but he couldn't connect with them. Cursing whoever designed that particular spell to die a horrible death, Prince hopelessly continued his wriggling, ignoring the new pain brought on by the ropes digging into his skin.

The man laughed again, tapping the end of Prince's nose as a smirk made his ruddy face go lop-sided. "You're so cute when you struggle, Lolidragon."

"I want to puke," the magician muttered.

At Prince's murderous stare, the man made a tutting noise, pushed Prince over onto his back, and prodded the cloth gag tied around Prince's mouth. His green eyes narrowed scornfully. "Don't like the situation? Well, you shouldn't have stolen all that money from us and ruined our team, huh? You're just getting what you deserve."

Lolidragon was definitely going to be the fourth person Prince was going to kill when this was all over. The first, second, and third being these people.

Before the warrior could do anything else, the basement door suddenly opened, shut, and the second warrior slipped noiselessly down the stairs, dark armor making him nearly blend in with the shadows that surrounded them. He wordlessly ran his cold eyes over what the other was doing, and frowned ever-so-slightly in disgust. Striding over to where Prince was laying, he easily lifted the man off and threw him against the basement wall. "I told you not to touch her," he hissed angrily, and then turned to the magician. "And what were you doing, not stopping him‽"

The magician's face paled and she shook her head fearfully, clutching her thin staff tighter against herself. She threw an accusatory glance in the other man's direction. "H-he–"

"Shut up." The warrior didn't seem to expect a reply from her, and he strode toward the stairs again. His black boots barely made any sound as he walked, as if he wasn't even coming in contact with the floor. "They're here, and I've left the note upstairs. Bring the thief, we're moving to the next location."

Prince's heart soared with happiness at the first part of the news, and he mentally cheered on his teammates. As the other warrior gave a groan and stood from where he'd fallen on top of a now-broken table, he quickly picked up Prince and followed after the other man in silent obedience. The magician quietly stepped after, walking very shakily as she fought to keep her hold on the spell.

When Prince attempted to continue his struggle so the others would have time to get there and save him, bright lights exploded behind his eyes as he received another blow to the head, and he went limp in the warrior's firm grasp. Prince stubbornly fought back the tears threatening to spill out as the back of his head throbbed painfully. Having low defense was so inconvenient. Lolidragon's impressive agility and stamina were pointless when he couldn't use them.

The shopkeeper watched in timid silence as they emerged from the basement stairwell set in the floor behind the till. They hurried past him, entered the storage room, and walked to the back door. When the three came to an unexpected halt, Prince perked up his ears. "Why has he done this?" the dark warrior asked softly, in a curious sort of tone. "How daring." The jangling of metal filled the air for a moment, and he sighed. Apparently the door had been locked. "Break it."

The magician's spell was suddenly cut off and she gave a gasp of relief, but Prince's mind remained annoyingly swirly. The effects of the spell being cast briefly had the potential to last quite a while, and, as it was, Prince had no expectations of being able to think clearly for a very long time. His heart pounded as he heard the familiar voices of his friends speaking to one another inside the shop, and he attempted to call out to them around the cloth stuffed into his mouth. The only sound that came out was a muffled, strangled noise, barely loud enough for those in the room to hear, much less the rest of the shop. They were only a few meters away, yet he couldn't even get their attention. He furiously twisted his wrists around behind his back, trying to loosen the ropes. All he managed to do was give himself more cuts on the rough bonds.

A loud explosion abruptly sounded out in the storage room, startling Prince out of his escape attempts, and splintered wood flew all over the place. Sunlight suddenly spilled through the open doorway, and the three resumed their escape, dashing through the tiny, maze-like alleys behind the small shops. Their progress faltered only once when the warrior carrying Prince tripped and fell down with a loud yell, accidentally throwing Prince into a wall.

"Get up."

At the icy order, the warrior jumped to his feet and grabbed Prince again, shooting off once more. Prince attempted to memorize the directions of all of the turns, but soon gave up. Even if his mind was completely clear, he knew he wouldn't be able to remember any them.

Rounding another corner, they again came to a sudden halt. "Stop them."

Prince weakly lifted his head to watch the magician as she readied herself. She muttered a long, complicated spell. Prince stared fearfully as Kenshin came around the corner, his sword drawn, but was immediately blasted backward by the magician's released spell. Without waiting to see if the others had been caught in the attack, the three continued their retreat.

After what seemed like hours, they finally entered the back of another small building in one of the less populated areas of Infinite City, and Prince was carelessly dropped to the floor. He winced as his bare leg scraped against the rough stone. A hopeless feeling filled him as he wondered how long it would take to be found this time. At least he hadn't been blindfolded. The area outside had looked familiar, and he attempted to remember which part of the city they were in so he could tell the others once he woke up.

"Now we wait," the dark warrior informed, sounding amused as he sat himself in a corner, gaze fixed on the front door. As the other warrior lowered himself onto the floor on the other side of the room so both doors were covered, the magician quietly resumed her spell-casting, and Prince closed his eyes, attempting to block out the pain stinging all over.


	10. The Note

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note –** "Good thing Meatbun wasn't the one who switched with Prince." – my random thought of the day._

* * *

Wicked ran back to the weapons shop as fast as he could, the others trailing along behind at their own pace. He didn't care that he was running too swiftly for most of them to keep up. He didn't care about the blood dripping down his face from where a sharp piece of brick had clobbered him, narrowly missing his left eye. He didn't even care that Gui was once again crying at the top of his lungs like a hopeless idiot. The only thing on his mind was finding some sort of clue as to where the bastards had taken Prince this time. With as twisty as the back alleys of Infinite City were, Wicked was certain Prince would have no idea where he was whenever they arrived at their next destination. If they did anything to hurt Prince in any way, shape, or form, Wicked was hellbent on tearing them limb from limb. Then again, he already wanted to do so just because of the kidnapping.

Crashing through the shop's broken back door and jumping over the numerous boxes of goods, Wicked slid through the still-open doorway leading into the main shop. Without a glance at the shopkeeper, Wicked hurried into the basement and ran his eyes over the dark room. Growling in frustration, he stomped back up the stairs and hefted himself out of the trap door. Grabbing the oil lamp off the shop counter top, he jumped through the basement doorway again. Several people walked down the steps behind him as he began to wave the lamp about in search.

When Lolidragon gasped dramatically, Wicked twirled around and held out the lamp to give her enough light, thinking perhaps she'd spotted something important. He watched anxiously as she hurried forward, snatching her pink boot off the dirty floor. She proceeded to brush the filth off and sighed in a very victimized manner, "My poor armor is sure to be a mess."

"I think you need your priorities rearranged," Wicked snapped as he glared at her angrily, wondering why he'd been expecting anything different from the thief, and resumed his search for clues, not sympathetic at all toward Lolidragon's fashion issues. Aside from a large number of empty potion bottles littering the floor, a broken table, and the normal scattering of crates here and there containing more goods to sell in the shop, there wasn't anything down there of interest.

"For once, I agree," Gui muttered as he crouched down and inspected the abandoned bottles. Picking one up off the floor, he held it up to the light of the lamp Wicked was holding, and frowned thoughtfully. "Looks like these were filled with mana potions."

"What the hell else would a magician be drinking‽" Wicked dashed back up the basement steps, two at a time, ignoring the heated retort Gui lobbed at his back. Hastily dropping the oil lamp back beside the shop till, Wicked stepped across the room and threw open the only other door besides the ones leading outside. Stairs going up to another floor were revealed.

He slowly walked upward, more wary as he didn't know if there were traps set or anything of that sort, and soon emerged into a small, homey-looking room where the shopkeeper apparently lived. The only things in the room were normal objects one would find in a home—a bed, chairs, tables, shelves, a small kitchenette. Nothing suspicious. Not on the surface anyway.

Eyes narrowing, Wicked strode to the open window, through which a warm breeze was coming in, and lifted the pale curtain out of the way. He ran his gaze over the road below. The spot he and the others had stood a few buildings away was easily seen, though the whole point of gathering over there had been to keep out of sight as they approached the shop. This must have been where their watchman was sitting, waiting for them to come.

Wicked backed away from the window, and his eyes dropped to the small table set against the wall. Carefully sliding open the table's drawer, he rummaged around for a moment. Pieces of blank paper, pencils, bottles of ink, sketches of scenery, a small parcel of ginger cookies…Nothing important in there.

Shutting the drawer again, he frowned and proceeded to search the rest of the drawers in the room, and under the bed, and in the small cupboards hanging on the walls. The room was squeaky clean, nothing out of place at all. Glaring about himself, his eyes drifted upward toward the ceiling, and he paused, abruptly feeling very tired. There was a small envelope stabbed through with a knife buried in one of the thin, wooden rafters high above his head.

Wondering how it had gotten all the way up there, Wicked dragged one of the room's chairs underneath the envelope and eyed it for a moment. He wouldn't be nearly tall enough, even standing on a chair.

Hurrying back downstairs to get Ugly Wolf, he burst into the shop and froze in disbelief.

For who knew what reason, Lolidragon was sitting on the floor nearby, attempting to squash Prince's body's too-big foot into her retrieved boot, a concentrated stare covering her face. Doll was pushing on the underside of the boot, making very strained noises.

"What in the world are you two doing?" Wicked asked faintly, feeling like he was about to go insane from these people's ridiculous behavior. It was like they didn't care in the slightest that Prince was being held hostage somewhere.

"Oh, Wicked!" Lolidragon exclaimed, smiling up at him in relief as she gave an extra-strong shove with her foot, and Doll fell backward, knocking over a stack of once-neatly-arranged boxes of steel crossbow bolts. "Perfect timing. Come help me put this boot on."

"No!" Wicked yelled furiously, turning away to leave them there on the floor.

"You'd do it right away if I was Prince," Lolidragon muttered in a low, hurt tone.

He ignored her and hurried to the shop entrance where Ugly Wolf was standing, and patted him on the arm. When the beastman turned around, Wicked quickly pointed at the stairs. "I found an envelope in the rafters, too high for me to reach. Help me get it down, please?"

Ugly Wolf looked slightly surprised, and nodded as he followed Wicked upstairs. The room suddenly looked much smaller than before, when Wicked had been alone. "Is the envelope the only out-of-place thing you could find?" Ugly Wolf asked, tilting his head back to look at the impaled paper.

"Yes," Wicked replied, staring in worry as he watched the giant wolf experimentally climb onto the spindly little chair. He stepped forward and put steadying hands on Ugly Wolf's leg just in case, though he doubted he'd be able to stop the gigantic player from falling down if the chair broke or something. Ugly Wolf swung his paw several times at the knife.

With a heavy sigh, Ugly Wolf got off the chair, eyes still glued to the envelope. "I can't reach it," he grumbled, and then glanced down at Wicked, with a slightly brighter expression. Kneeling on the floor, Ugly Wolf waved Wicked over. "Come here. I bet you'll be able to get it standing on my shoulders."

Hesitating for a moment, Wicked carefully took hold of Ugly Wolf's paws and stepped up onto his wide shoulders. Bending forward a bit, his eyes widened as Ugly Wolf slowly stood again, planting his feet firmly apart from one another on the floor. Wicked shakily straightened himself, hands still tightly grasping both of Ugly Wolf's, and looked up again. It was definitely within reach now.

One-handedly ripping the knife out of the rafter, he let loose a whoosh of relieved breath. "I've got it," he called downward, and Ugly Wolf cautiously lowered him to the floor. Enjoying being on solid ground once more, he followed Ugly Wolf downstairs again. Wicked gave a brief glance toward Lolidragon, who seemed to have given up on putting her boot on, and he stepped to the counter where the shopkeeper was still standing, looking about himself in a jumpy manner.

"You found something?" Yu Lian asked as she hurried to stand beside Ugly Wolf, and watched intently as Wicked removed the knife from the envelope.

"Yes, this was stuck to the ceiling upstairs," Ugly Wolf said with a huff. "Probably a ransom note."

Gui popped up from somewhere a moment later to stare over Wicked's shoulder, and Lolidragon and Doll quickly scrambled off the floor to watch as well. "Why couldn't they have just left it in a normal place?" Lolidragon muttered as she leaned against the counter, resting her chin on her hands as she watched Wicked.

Feeling extremely squished when Kenshin, Sunshine, and Wu Qing joined in on the others' silent staring, Wicked frowned at the unneeded tension as he opened the envelope and removed a small piece of paper from within.

Unfolding the note, he quickly read the one line of thin script, and bewilderment filled him. Gui made a very loud "HUH‽" noise right by his ear, but Wicked tried to ignore him. Turning to Wu Qing, Wicked held the paper out. "It's got your name on it," he explained quietly as Wu Qing stared down at it, with wide-eyed surprise.


	11. Sunny Persuasion

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Wu Qing hesitantly took the small note from Wicked and stared down at it, wondering why it was for him. After all, Lolidragon was a member of the Odd Squad, not Dark Phantom. But perhaps the kidnappers had taken note of Wu Qing's interest in the illustrious thief, and chose him because of that. Still, it seemed weird to him.

Stupid sister, getting herself kidnapped…and in someone else's body, at that.

Unfolding the thick paper the rest of the way, he read through the scrawled lines of script written underneath his name, feeling more and more confused as he went along. After he finished, he read through it again. And a third time. On the fourth attempt, he gave a frustrated growl and thrust it back at Wicked. "What the heck does this even say‽"

_"That which was stolen shall be returned, shining wealth, flawless in enumeration, for the diminished pilferer. Thrice is your chance for the equitable transposition, starting with this. Into the roiling mists you must come with none but shadows and whispers as your company. Tarry not, you of the wind, else your goal be broken."_

Wicked read it through a few times with an utterly bewildered expression equaling Wu Qing's. "Well, um, it's…um."

Gui suddenly snatched it away from him, his purple eyes darting back and forth as he took in the words. However, before he could finish, Wicked grabbed it back, angrily glaring at Gui. "I was reading that, thank you very much!"

"So what‽" Gui asked, taking it again and attempting to hold it out of Wicked's reach. "_I'm _the literature professor, so _I'll_ figure it out for him!"

Wicked ignored Gui's reasoning and continued to try to retrieve it from the bard's evasive hand. "Give it back!" he snapped, yanking on Gui's sleeve. Rather than allowing Wicked to take the note, Gui stubbornly crumpled it up in his hand and refused to unravel his fingers. There was a loud tearing noise when a corner of the paper parted with the rest.

"Stop ripping it! How are we going to read it again if you do that‽ Moron!" Gui's challenge only succeeded in further riling up Wicked. With loud clanking noises from Wicked's silvery armor and a gusty "Oof!" from Gui, they fell to the wooden floor, seemingly forgetting all about the note, and proceeded to kick and punch at one another. While their antics were usually humorous to Wu Qing, he was feeling rather annoyed at them for ignoring his plight.

Cautiously side-stepping the thunderous wrestling match, Ugly Wolf picked up the battered note that had been thrown to one side, then flattened it out on the counter top, reading it through. "I think Gui really would be best for this," he remarked, a thoroughly perplexed expression settling over his fuzzy face. He then gave an exasperated glance to the screaming and flailing pair on the floor. "A little teamwork would be nice."

Wu Qing took the note back when the beastman offered it, gave it one last look-over, then frowned thoughtfully at the shop owner, who had been standing behind his till the whole time, looking very frightened. "What about him? He was in cahoots with them, wasn't he? Letting them use this place as their base or whatever."

Everyone, Gui and Wicked aside, turned in his direction and his face paled. He shook his head, waving a hand and backing away. "No, I don't know anything!"

"You don't know anything‽" Lolidragon snarled, stomping over to him and unsheathing Prince's dao. "How can you not know anything‽ They kidnapped Lolidragon a week ago, and have probably been hiding out here the whole time! Wu Qing is right, you were helping them!"

"M-my Lord," he shakily pleaded, widened eyes glued to the black blade lifted to his throat. "I swear I don't know anything!"

With an angry roar, Lolidragon lifted the sword to swing it down on him, but Yu Lian grabbed her arm. "Wait, Prince." She smiled and pulled Lolidragon back, patting her hand. "There is no need to make even more of a mess in here, is there? There are other ways to get the truth out of him, though murder does sound rather nice at the moment. What we–"

"I'LL BE THE ONE TO FIND HIM!"

"–should do is–"

"OUCH! DON'T PULL ON THAT, YOU DAMN MORON!"

"–take…"

"I'LL PULL ON WHATEVER I WANT, SO YOU—A-A-A-AH! MY EYE!"

"SERVES YOU RIGHT!"

Yu Lian sighed deeply, then gave a tired look to Ugly Wolf. He immediately leaned over and yanked Gui off of Wicked, clamping one large paw over the bard's mouth. He then glared down at Wicked. "Our top priority should be finding Lolidragon, not gaining superiority over one another! If you two can't work together, then leave and take your fight somewhere else!"

Wu Qing was very relieved to see that they calmed down at once upon hearing his reprimanding words. Gui quickly stopped struggling in the wolf's grasp, focusing instead on his blackening eye. Wicked reluctantly stood up, wiped the blood off his swollen lip, and nodded.

After letting go of Gui, Ugly Wolf gave a smile to Yu Lian. "You were saying, my dear?"

She cleared her throat and turned to Sunshine. "May we use your flying carpet for a bit, Sunshine?"

He gave her a confused glance, but nodded. "Why do you need it?"

"Persuasion tactics, of course!" she promptly replied. "Prince, Wu Qing, you two are coming with us to help interrogate our friend here." She clamped a hand down on the trembling shopkeeper's elbow, then waved her other hand at the shop goods scattered all over the floor nearby. "The rest of you, please, clean up this mess. Oh, Kenshin—not you."

The second pet paused in his movements to pick up a fallen box of crossbow bolts, and looked questioningly toward Yu Lian. "If you would be so kind as to draw up some sketches of the kidnappers? You're the only one who saw them, after all."

"There's paper and pencils upstairs," Wicked informed, ushering Kenshin over to the stairway leading up to the shopkeeper's rooms. He probably just wanted to get away from Gui, Wu Qing thought.

While the others began to tidy the wrecked shop, Wu Qing quickly followed the other four outside, curious as to how they were going to use a carpet to persuade the guy to talk. Roll him up so he couldn't move, take his boots off, then tickle his feet until he gave in and answered their questions?

Sunshine whipped his golden rug out of nowhere, shook it about, then hopped up and neatly seated himself at the front, keeping it steady while everyone clambered on after him.

Under Yu Lian's direction, Sunshine raised them far up into the sky, high enough that the city looked tiny, and then leveled out. "Are you sure you don't know anything?" Yu Lian pressed in a sweet tone, giving the shopkeeper one of her icy smiles. She wasn't directing it at Wu Qing, but he quickly looked away, feeling his heart rate speed up in slight fear. How did the rest of the Odd Squad manage to hang around her all the time?

The shopkeeper shook his head, looking utterly terrified.

"That's too bad," Yu Lian mused. "Prince, Wu Qing, grab his ankles. Hold on tight." The two warriors quickly obeyed. "Got him? Good." She then roughly shoved the man off the edge of the carpet and he flew upside-down through the air, screaming in fright. Wu Qing tightened his grip on the man's boot, holding onto the carpet with his other. This magician was ruthless…

"ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING‽" Yu Lian called, peering down at him over the edge of the carpet.

"A-A-A-A-AH!" he replied.

"ANSWER!" Lolidragon snapped, yanking on the man's ankle, so he bobbed up and down.

"NO-O-O-O-O!"

Wu Qing glanced at the other two. "Do you think that was a refusal, or just more screaming?"

"Pull him up for a moment," Yu Lian commanded with a frown, sitting down again and sighing. Sunshine looked quite horrified over his carpet being used in such a way, and he sent many worried glances over his shoulder while he flew the carpet in wide circles over the city.

Once the man had been relocated to the carpet, he clutched at the thick, golden fabric and sobbed hoarsely. "Are you ready to talk yet?" Yu Lian asked.

He made a vague mumbly noise in response, and Yu Lian motioned to Wu Qing and Lolidragon. They shoved him off the carpet again, holding tightly onto his ankles. Wu Qing heaved a sigh, watching the man swing back and forth as he was battered by the wind. This "interrogation" was taking way too long. He wanted to go back to the shop and have Gui translate that stupid note.

They pulled the shopkeeper up again a few minutes later and he simply flopped down on the carpet, barely making any noise at that point. Rather, he looked like he was about to faint. Wu Qing, not particularly wanting to wait for the man to wake up, hoped very much that he wasn't going to pass out.

"You'd better start talking, or else we'll get rough," Yu Lian warned, glaring down at the white-faced man.

His watery eyes flickered to her for a moment, then glanced toward the angry looks of Wu Qing and Lolidragon. A long minute of silence passed by while he thought, then he gave a tiny nod. "Okay…"


	12. Rapid Deciphering

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

Wu Qing jumped off Sunshine's carpet and took a few shaky steps back, watching while Yu Lian and Lolidragon dragged the limp and submissive shopkeeper to the ground. Sunshine, seeing everyone was off, hastily put his carpet away and gave several frightened glances in the magician's direction, as if worried that she would make use of his carpet in another unwanted way.

"I'm going to go talk to Gui about that note," Wu Qing announced, retreating further back and hoping that he wasn't going to be called on for any more help with "persuading" the man, as Yu Lian had put it. At least her methods had seemed to work quickly, even if they were rather extreme.

Lolidragon glanced toward Sunshine, shoved the shopkeeper at him, then went to stand beside Wu Qing. "I'm going with him."

"I hope you figure it out quickly. This situation is becoming more and more irritating." With a wave of her hand, Yu Lian turned away. "Come on, Sunshine. Let's go interrogate him."

Sunshine gave a brief look to the dazed shopkeeper in his arms, then stared pitifully at Wu Qing and Lolidragon, obviously asking for help. However, without another word, Yu Lian dragged him off by the elbow, heading for the castle.

Mentally apologizing to the distraught pet, Wu Qing sighed and hurried off down the road to the weapons shop, Lolidragon at his heels. Sunshine would probably be better off with Yu Lian, anyway, Wu Qing thought. With as curious as Sunshine was, he probably wouldn't run out of questions to ask. Hopefully the man would have answers for all of the questions. _Helpful_ answers, not whiny noises like the previous replies the man had given.

Throwing open the door, Wu Qing hurried into the shop, stopped a few steps in, and glanced around, searching for the professor. Ugly Wolf, Wicked, and Kenshin were cleaning up the back of the shop, Doll was sitting on the counter top and was giving them orders, but Gui was nowhere to be seen.

After giving a questioning look to Lolidragon—she shrugged—Wu Qing wandered over to Doll. "Doll, do you know where Gui went? I want to ask him about the ransom note."

"Mm?" Doll hummed, looking up at him and sticking a cracker in her mouth. Once she'd swallowed, she nodded toward the door he'd just come in. "He left a couple minutes ago."

"Any idea where he went?"

"Nope. He didn't say anything."

"I'm gonna stay in here," Lolidragon announced, easing herself up onto the counter to sit with Doll and also bark orders at the three who were, with many an annoyed frown, still cleaning.

Sighing, Wu Qing hurried back outside, switching to the private messaging system. **"Gui, where are you?"**

**"Castle!"** he bluntly messaged back, sounding somewhat out of breath, as if he'd run the whole way.

**"Oh. Well, um, about the note. I was wondering if you knew what it meant, 'cause I'm a bit confused about it,"** Wu Qing slowly admitted, giving a somewhat lazy glance about the bustling market road. "A bit" meaning completely confused. The bad karma for copying all of Lan's literature comprehension homework assignments seemed to be catching up to him.

**"Its meaning is obvious!"** Gui declared a moment later. **"What's there to be confused over?"**

Eyebrows drawing together, Wu Qing slipped the rumpled and torn paper out of his pouch and read it once more, wondering if he'd missed something. He pressed his lips together in frustration, still not understanding. **"Kinda…everything?"**

**"'Give us the money for Lolidragon, you've got three days to come to the mist lands alone, and hurry up or else,' is what it basically means,"** Gui swiftly explained, once again amazing Wu Qing with his Amazing Brain Powers. **"How is that hard to understand? It is completely simple!"**

**"Oh, yeah, I see now,"** Wu Qing said, nodding in agreement, though he still had no idea where Gui had gotten that from. Then again, the bard _was_ a literature professor, one who…who…

Wu Qing paused, eyes widening. **"Wait a minute!"** he exclaimed. **"Three days! The mist lands are all the way at the north-west corner of the continent!"**

**"Go find Nan Gong Zui,"** Gui suggested. **"His alliance owns a lot of horses. I'm sure he'll have one to spare."**

**"Oh, good idea."** He automatically gave another agreeable nod, then took a step toward the east, where the alliance was housed and the stables were located, but then came to a halt, realizing he couldn't just leave. **"'The money for Lolidragon'…How much do you suppose that is?"** he continued, frowning.

**"Ask Lolidra–"** Gui's voice was abruptly cut off before he could finish his sentence.

Wu Qing waited several seconds to see if he would continue, but no finish came. **"Gui?"** He waited again, but the bard didn't reply. Feeling a bit worried, he quickly messaged Yu Lian that Gui might be in trouble, then hurried back inside the shop to rejoin Lolidragon. Doll and Lolidragon both looked up when he stopped beside them again.

"That was fast," the thief remarked.

"I need the ransom money," he explained. "You–"

"Go ask Yu Lian." She waved a hand dismissively before Wu Qing could finish what he was saying.

Feeling irritated at all of the stops he was going to have to make, he crossed his arms and stared hard at Prince's body, which was inspecting its fingernails closely. "The kidnappers want the money back that _you_ stole from them!" Or so Gui had said.

The red eyes went from staring at fingernails, back to him, and widened. "Oh, is that what they want?" Lolidragon mused, tapping a finger on her chin. White eyebrows pulled together, she shrugged. "All of the money I've stolen from people in the past has either been spent or given to Yu Lian to put into the city's finances, so, as I said…ask her."

"But I need to know what the amount is," Wu Qing sighed in exasperation. Why did this all have to be so annoying? Stupid sister…he was definitely going to nag her for his favorite meals for a month, in repayment for making him do all of this bothersome stuff in-game.

Lolidragon snorted incredulously. "As if I would remember the exact amount I've stolen from every single person! It's impossible!"

"Well, get to remembering!" he ordered. Grabbing Kenshin's sketch of the kidnapper off the counter top, he thrust it in her face. "This is the person! Remember now?"

"Of course not!" she yelled in reply, glaring irritably at him as she shoved away the drawing. "I can't even recall seeing this guy before!"

Leaning forward, Wu Qing threw the paper over his shoulder and snarled, "WHY'D YOU STEAL IT IN THE FIRST PLACE? IF YOU'D JUST LEFT IT ALONE, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! STUPID THIEF!"

Lolidragon grabbed his shirt front and roughly shook him back and forth. "DUH, YOU MORON! I'M A _THIEF_! I STEAL STUFF! AND ANYWAY, IT'S THE OTHER PLAYERS' FAULT FOR LEAVING THEIR MONEY IN SUCH AN EASY-TO-SNATCH PLACE!"

"JUST BECAUSE IT'S IN AN 'EASY-TO-SNATCH PLACE' DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO SNATCH IT!"

"LEAVING IT LIKE THAT IS LIKE ASKING SOMEONE TO SNATCH IT!"

"IS NOT!"

"IS SO!"

Although Wu Qing kind of wanted to continue their shouting match, he quickly stepped back and recrossed his arms, putting on a mature air in a want to look more impressive and adult-like. "I don't have time to argue with you," he snootily declared, then, dropping all of his maturity, made a face at her. "If I take the wrong amount, it's all your fault!" Before Lolidragon could retaliate, he turned and ran out the door to collect some money—hopefully somewhere around the correct amount—and get a horse, so he could rescue his stupid sister.


End file.
